Project Monitoring, Analytics, and Control

This chapter provides a detailed overview of the processes involved in monitoring and reporting project performance.

Summary

  • Project monitoring and controlling, which occurs simultaneously with execution, involves reconciling "projected performance stated in your planning documentation with your team's actual performance" and making changes where necessary to get your project back on track. The best monitoring and controlling system encourages active control, which involves: 1) controlling what you can by making sure you understand what's important, taking meaningful measurements, and building an effective team focused on project success; and 2) adapting to what you can't control through early detection and proactive intervention.
  • The type of monitoring that works for one project might not work for another, even if both projects seem similar. Exactly which items you need to monitor will vary from project to project, and from one industry to another. But in any industry, you usually only need to monitor a handful of metrics. As a general rule, you should measure as often as you need to make meaningful course corrections.
  • You can prevent information overload by shaping monitoring data into electronic, at-a-glance dashboards that collate vital statistics about a project, and reports that contain only the information your audience needs. Always tailor the amount of detail, the perspective, and the format of information in a report to the specific stakeholders who will be consuming it.
  • A well-designed dashboard is an excellent tool for presenting just the right amount of information about project performance. The key to effective dashboards is identifying which dashboard elements are most helpful to your particular audience.
  • Gut instinct, or pure intuition, can make you vulnerable to the errors caused by cognitive biases. You'll get better results by linking intuition to analysis and learning. The result, informed intuition, is a combination of information and instinctive understanding acquired through learning and experience.
  • The linearity bias – a cognitive bias that causes people to perceive direct linear relationships between things that actually have more complex connections – can make it hard to interpret monitoring data correctly.
  • Compliance programs – which focus on ensuring that organizations and their employees adhere to government regulations, follow all other laws, and behave ethically – require the same kind of careful monitoring and controlling as any organizational endeavor.